As an avid hater of all things Gamecock-related, this makes me incredibly happy. What doesn’t make me happy is the fact that that is the only semi-palatable game on the evening slate on Saturday (more to follow) ((but Notre Dame at Syracuse is on ABC. KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!))

Every other timeslot has some damn good football.

Thirsty Thursday Double (hell, triple) header Action

1) 10pm, Fox Sports 1, #11 UCLA at #15 Arizona State: UCLA has been rather pedestrian this season behind a shoddy OL, but maybe Jim Mora’s Bruins have simply been playing down to competition? They’ve won their three games by a combined 18 points. On the flip side, Arizona State has climbed to 15 by virtue of playing NOBODY. Last summer, I almost moved to Phoenix, so I have a soft spot for ASU and the fact that Sun Devil Stadium is essentially built into a mountain. Pretty cool spot.

1) Tennessee at #12 Georgia, ESPN: Even sans any inherent bias, this is the obvious choice for football-watchers in the early slate. Learn about Tennessee here and learn about Georgia’s secondary making tackles in space on Saturday.
2) Vanderbilt at Kentucky, SECN: It’s almost like an SEC game.
3) PICKEM: Wyoming at #9 Michigan State is on the deuce if you need to scout Sparty before their jog through the B1G. The rest is ugly.

Whilst Poppin’ First-SEC-Win Bottles…

1) Again, the SEC saves the day with suddenly-good-at-football Arkansas and #6 Texas A&M (3:30, CBS) squaring off in JerryWorld. Prepare yourself to hear Uncle Verne say “Kenny Trill” and for us all to die a little inside.
2) 4:30, FOX, #16 Stanford at Washington: Why did Chris Pedersen jump ship at Boise, exactly? He hasn’t made that evident in his first few games at UDub. A Huskies win puts Oregon in an almost unbeatable position in the Pac-12 North.
3) #1 Florida State at N.C. State, 3:30, ABC: The ‘Noles have lived dangerously this year. The Wolpfack (yes I did that on purpose) boasts a 4-0 record including wins over South Florida, Old Dominion, and Presbyterian, and a last-minute one over Georgia Southern. SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE!

While on the subject of N.C. State Sports Marketing, check out this not at all a ripoff of LSU’s Death Valley intro, used last basketball season:

4) AT YOUR OWN RISK: See if Michigan’s ticket giveaway was enough to keep the sellout ‘streak’ alive against Minnesota on ESPN2. #5 Auburn gets a final tune-up vs. Louisiana Techbefore a brutal season-ending stretch (@MSU, SC, @Miss, aTm, @Georgia, Samford, @Alabama). Oh, and for laughs: Texas at Kansas on FS1 at 4:15.

When the lights go down in the citaaaaayyyyy

1) Anything else. Go to dinner. Enjoy the weather. Knock out your ‘honey-do’ list. Play some touch football. Drink yourself into oblivion. Get creative.
2) Mizzou at #13 South Carolina, 7:30, ESPN: Missouri can totally recover from an Indiana loss to hand the Cocks a loss, right? RIGHT? Shane Ray and Markus Golden, MAKE IT SO!
3) Memphis at #10 Ole Miss, inexplicably on ESPN3. A classic trap game for the Rebs against a team that almost won against UCLA. They host Bama next week.
4) Grab-Bag: I’ll be suffering through UNC’s defense against Clemson at 7 on ESPNU. If you get the B1G Network and hate Ohio State, Cincinnati/#22 Ohio State (6pm) could be fun. Ames, Iowa is where dreams go to die, but the only dreams killed on FOX at 8 are Iowa State’s as they host #7 Baylor.